Listen

Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

Think

Throughout the Gospels, the religious leaders of the day were constantly trying to figure out how to “not do the wrong thing.” These leaders were so focused on not doing the wrong thing that they sometimes failed to grasp the concept of doing the right thing.

Doing the good and right thing is something that Jesus focused upon and always taught. In the Gospel of John we learn that Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid” (John 14:27).

Jesus was always sowing peace into the lives of the people he met by doing good works. There are constant opportunities throughout the day to do good for others and ourselves. If we work to become more aware of these times to do good, we will be doing as Jesus did to all he met.

Pray

Go

Children of God, lift hearts to one another;
Where pity dwells, the peace of God is there;
To worship rightly is to love each other,
Each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer.

Adapted from an 1850 hymn by John Greenleaf Whittier

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writer

Sarah Briggs

Sarah Briggs is a student at the Gardner-Webb School of Divinity. She also works at her alma mater, Wingate University, as the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship intern. She enjoys laughter and good coffee, watching television shows on Netflix, and spending time with her family.